Marauder Blood
by MarauderBlood
Summary: Going into their seventh and final year of Hogwarts, the Marauders are aware of rising evil in the outside world. While they struggle to balance school life and a rebellion, they also have to come to terms with growing up and everything that entails.


September 1, 1977 Marlene McKinnon

I'm not who people seem to think I am, and people think I'm deaf to the muttered whispers.

I never attempted to try and become the only female Marauder.

I did not befriend the Marauders in an attempt to get in any of their pants.

I am not a slag, I am not fake, I'm not trying too hard; I'm just being me and apparently that's not good enough for others. My attempts to make friends with girls have usually been ruined by a number of things. Either the girl is trying to hit on one of the Marauders, or they have joined the Hate Marlene McKinnon Club. Okay, I may be exaggerating a little. I'm not hated throughout the school by any stretch of the imagination. If I'm to be completely honest, I'm actually quite popular. The problem is that people don't seem to want to get to know me. They know my name, they know I'm on the Quidditch team, they know I'm in Gryffindor and who my friends are, and apparently that's enough for them.

I managed to get all the way up to seventh year without having a best friend, and by that I mean a singular best friend, a mutual best friend. I want to say that I'm okay with that, but having a lot of friends is nothing like the relationships I see within the Marauders. There must be nothing like having someone who you're always partnered with in class (when given the option) or just having that buddy who hangs out with you all the time. I envy that sort of relationship and it's probably why I was drawn to the Marauders in the first place. Their relationships with each other were contagious and it was hard to not want to be a part of it.

My final year of Hogwarts began on a Thursday. Mid-week, probably the most awkward time for a term to start. My mind was a racing mess. Things were spiralling out of control in the real world and yet here I was expected to focus on my classes like they were the most important things to me, and they simply weren't. Even Quidditch seemed to be thrown on the back-burner in comparison to what I had learned over the past few months. The idea of school seemed utterly laughable, but I went anyway. For one, my parents would never let me drop out, and second of all I hoped that whatever was brewing would be short and that afterward I could go on with real life. I tried to imagine myself with my own flat and maybe a dog and just living the normal life. It seemed idyllic but currently impossible.

I was so off in my own world that slamming face-first into Sirius Black's chest came unexpected. I reeled back and grabbed at my nose. I could feel blood run between my fingers and I looked up at a grinning Sirius who seemed to think my pain was funny. I released my hands from my face.

"Yeah, you think this is funny, mate? How funny d'you think it'll be when I bleed all over you?" I took steps toward him and tried to get close to him to bleed on the white shirt he was wearing. He laughed and grabbed me by my upper arms in order to hold me back. Naturally, I struggled against him and accomplished nothing but bleed all over myself. "My bloody nose is broken and you just antagonize me."

"Oh, it's not broken," Sirius said in a matter-of-fact tone. When I fell loose in his grasp he finally freed me and I just stood there. He held my face in his hands and turned my face this way and that in order to look me over. "Okay, it might be a little broken. Lemme fix it." He took out his wand and I stepped back and held my hands up.

"Uh, I don't think so. I saw what you did to Lucy last term when she broke her arm," I protested.

"I've gotten better."

"No."

"Yes."

I took out my own wand and awkwardly held it so I was pointing it at myself. I snorted accidentally and blood rushed down the back of my throat. I coughed and that was when I finally painted his shirt with red. He grimaced but took the opportunity of me being distracted to flourish his wand. I felt a crack and a sharp pain but immediately noticed that the bleeding had stopped. I stood back up properly and Sirius' face looked smug.

"Okay, maybe you got a little better," I conceded.

"That's what I thought." He crossed his arms over his chest proudly. "Where you heading to?"

"Nowhere." I said, flatly. "Probably just going to wander the corridors of the train aimlessly until we get there. You know, the usual."

"Come sit with us," he offered.

"Nah, who'd be left to wander and make uncomfortable eye contact with younger students if I were to do that?" I responded.

Sirius grabbed me by the arm and began to practically drag me. "I'm sure Snivellus can do a fairly good job with that," he stated as we passed by compartments. Anyone we passed gave Sirius and I strange looks which only told me that we must look strange with blood on his shirt and all over my face. It didn't take long before we got to our destination. He slid the door open for me and I collapsed onto the empty bench across from Peter and Remus.

"What'd we tell you about kidnapping girls?" Remus asked Sirius dully as if he threw bloodied up girls into their compartment all the time. "Try to be a little less conspicuous."

Peter snorted. "Yeah, or else James might have to get you in trouble."

I looked up and realized that James wasn't there. "Where is he, anyway?"

"Head Boy duties," Sirius responded with a roll of his eyes as he continued to stand in the doorway.

"You've got to be shitting me," I said without thinking.

"That's what I said," Remus said with a chuckle. "Suppose they're trying to get him to grow up a bit, give him a bit of responsibility."

"You know, a dog would do the trick too, and that wouldn't require him to keep watch over the entire student body," I retorted.

"Are you going to keep laying there or am I allowed to sit?" Sirius interjected. I didn't move. He took it upon himself to move my legs and then sit, placing my legs across him. "Are you dying or something?"

"I must be if Potter is Head Boy," I replied as I closed my eyes. The fabric of the seat was scratchy and uncomfortable but I didn't feel like moving.

"Why so bloody anyway?" Peter wondered curiously as he threw a jellybean at me and it hit my face before falling to the floor.

I was never amazed anymore by their lack of concern. Then again, I've fallen off my broom and had looked worse than I did now many times so they were no doubt used to it. "Black punched me in the face."

"Yeah well, you had it coming," Sirius responded smoothly.

Remus took out his wand and removed the blood off my face. "You look fine underneath the blood."

"I wouldn't go that far," Sirius argued.

"Oh, har har." I took my legs back and sat up normally and looked out the window. The sun was still high in the sky. I watched the fields go by and I felt a little bleak as I half-listened to the three boys in the compartment joke around with each other and talk about girls and James and Lily. I managed to be light-hearted but I couldn't bring myself to be completely normal. I felt useless. I wanted to express myself, but the last thing that I wanted to do was interrupt one of the potentially last happy moments that the Marauders might have.


End file.
